"Women and children,"
such were the orders of Wolfe, "are to be treated with humanity; if any
violence is offered to a woman, the offender shall be punished with
death." These orders were generally obeyed. The English, with the single
exception of Montgomery, killed none but armed men in the act of
resistance or attack; Vaudreuil's war-parties spared neither age nor
sex.
Montcalm let the parishes burn, and still lay fast intrenched in his
lines of Beauport. He would not imperil all Canada to save a few hundred
farmhouses; and Wolfe was as far as ever from the battle that he
coveted. Hitherto, his attacks had been made chiefly below the town;
but, these having failed, he now changed his plan and renewed on a
larger scale the movements begun above it in July. With every fair wind,
ships and transports passed the batteries of Quebec, favored by a hot
fire from Point Levi, and generally succeeded, with more or less damage,
in gaining the upper river. A fleet of flatboats was also sent thither,
and twelve hundred troops marched overland to embark in them, under
Brigadier Murray. Admiral Holmes took command of the little fleet now
gathered above the town, and operations in that quarter were
systematically resumed.
To oppose them, Bougainville was sent from the camp at Beauport with
fifteen hundred men. His was a most arduous and exhausting duty. He must
watch the shores for fifteen or twenty miles, divide his force into
detachments, and subject himself and his followers to the strain of
incessant vigilance and incessant marching.
Pages:
795
796
797
798
799
800
801
802
803
804
805
806
807
808
809
810
811
812
813
814
815
816
817
818
819